Which/what/where to buy Tower

furndire

I've decided that I need to update my pc - buy a new tower. I already have a really good monitor, so don't need that.
Where will I get a good deal?
Using it mainly for surfing the web, a few spreadsheets, (nothing ambitious), I do play a few games, but not majorly complicated or fast war games etc.
The computer kept crashing & freezing so took Windows off - tried to reinstall it, but it will not load properly so skipped a file ini.file - it then loaded, but won't work properly. Its a few years old, so I have decided to call it a day with this one, and don't want to start putting new bits in that no doubt will not be compatible etc. Just don't want the hassle + I would like a smaller tower to take up less room.

Will it be better to get something with a faster processor, and more memory that I have at the moment. Was thinking of running Windows 7 - does it use more mememory?

This is what I have now, Microsoft Windows XP Professional version 2002 service pack 3 (this was from my working days)
Computer
Intel(R) Core (TM)2 CPU
400 @2.00GHz
2.01GHz, 1.99 GB of RAM
Physical Address Extension (what does this mean?)

Please bear in mind that I am NOT techie minded just a silver surfer.:D

How about this one
http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/5072301/Trail/searchtext%3EPC+TOWER.htm

stilltheone

What make and model of machine?

InsideInsurance

Spend £100 more and get a Mac Mini http://store.apple.com/uk/browse/home/shop_mac/family/mac_mini/select?mco=MjMzOTQxMTc no more having to mess about with the OS hanging or reinstalling it every few months because its slowing etc

If you know anyone studying or working in higher education they could buy it for you with a reasonable discount and all but free extended warranty.

(throws in the hand grenade and runs)

santer_2

More options

Ask Novatech or pcspecialist to suggest something suitable

Novatech I plan to buy Live chat

http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/hdcontacts.html

And

enquiries@pcspecialist.co.uk

You could post the specs for their suggestions to see if anyone can improve on them

John_Gray

Another firm you might like to add to Santer's list is ChillBlast. You'd be at the cheap end of their ranges for all three firms.

But the Zoostorm PC you point to seems quite good value, but most components may be overspecified for what you want except for the graphics, which is onboard, and not suitable for anything resembling intensive gaming. Windows 7 (64-bit) runs quite nicely in 4 GB of memory, but if you get 8 GB, so much the better. And you might find it hard to fill up nearly 2 TB of hard disk space!

But this assumes you don't want to persist with what is quite a good spec of XP box...

(You've got to hand it to those Apple enthusiasts - they seem to think that changing to their esoteric way of doing things is a neat move for someone who has had years of hard-won Windows experience!)

closed

"ini file?, loaded but won't work properly?" means?

santer_2

Did you choose the quick or the longer format?

If you have the data you need off it, maybe worth using dban to wipe the drive then re-install

You could also try memtest ahead of using dban

If a PC keeps crashing it is worth trying to locate the fault, as it can happen to any PC

http://sourceforge.net/projects/dban/files/

http://www.memtest.org/

Scroll down for the pre complied ISO zip version

You can use ImgBurn to put the image files on to different CD discs

http://www.imgburn.com/index.php?act=download

You can use a PC that you do not mind replacing to learn a lot and try - test a lot

furndire

santer wrote: »

Did you choose the quick or the longer format?

If you have the data you need off it, maybe worth using dban to wipe the drive then re-install

You could also try memtest ahead of using dban

If a PC keeps crashing it is worth trying to locate the fault, as it can happen to any PC

http://sourceforge.net/projects/dban/files/

http://www.memtest.org/

Scroll down for the pre complied ISO zip version

You can use ImgBurn to put the image files on to different CD discs

http://www.imgburn.com/index.php?act=download

You can use a PC that you do not mind replacing to learn a lot and try - test a lot

My daughter spent the last 48 trying to sort out. I'll ask her what she did - although to be honest it really goes over my head but I will show her this post. She has managed to find the service pack for Windows from a German site I think she said, but I'll report back tomorrow.
Anyway at the moment everything seems to be running properly again. Maybe I won't need to replace just yet.

steve1980

I've just purchased a pc from www.awd-it.co.uk very good value for money.